1988 Summer Music
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For many years now, FMP has presented every summer its Summer Music Concerts in the Zehlendorf Haus am Waldsee, which also helps sponsor the series. This year, for the first time, we've also appropriated for our program one of Berlin's most beautiful lakes - the Große Wannsee; well, not all of it, but at least its water-line. On the Wannsee beach - right on the water-line - will be erected seven large pieces of stone, and for a hundred days, stonemasons, one foot in the water and one foot on the beach, will chisel away at these, each stone with its own character - some, revealing a hard and brilliant Nordic origin; others, soft and pliable, evoking a dull Mediterranean glow. From these stones will crystallize, seven times in a hundred days, whatever arises from the interplay of material, environment and the personal creativity of the different artists. Running concurrently with this event will be an exhibition in the Haus am Waldsee featuring sketches, diagrams and other objects supplied by the seven sculptors involved in the project. In addition, for seven days this exhibition will host, not one hundred, but seven musicians seeking to create a musical counterpoint to what is taking shape on the beach at the Wannsee. Six brass players and a pianist pitted against seven stones - some hard and brilliant, others soft, with a dull glow. An attempt to reflect in musical terms the sensual qualities of inanimate matter; to pin down one's associations in sound. For one week, Heinz Becker, Kenny Wheeler, Conrad Bauer, Thomas Wiedermann, Benoit Viredaz, Larry Fishkind, and "the old Belgian", Fred Van Hove will work on the musical end of the project - from Monday through Friday, essentially based at the exhibition; quite probably they'll also rehearse at least once or wice at the site on the Wannsee in order to study the sculptor's work. ("Weather allowing, they might even take a dip," suspects Jost Gebers.) The door to the Haus am Waldsee will remain open to anyone wishing to see the exhibition or listen to the seven musicians at work. By the weekend, two pieces will have been prepared; the first: hard and brilliant; the second: soft, perhaps with a dull glow. Given those Berlin summer showers, it seems inadvisable to risk putting our concert grand on the beach at the Wannsee, so we've decided to present the finished pieces on Saturday and Sunday in the Haus am Waldsee; there the two major compositions will be preceded and followed by music provided by smaller groups. Incidentally, the musical side of all this will occur relatively late in the overall project. The FMP contribution is scheduled from July 25 to July 31; the hundred days at the water-line, and the accompanying exhibition at the Haus am Waldsee will end on August 88. Translation: Daniel Werts from: Booklet “improvised music” by Free Music Production (FMP), 1988 |
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